2023 Nobel Prize in Physics and Medicine

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded jointly to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their contributions to the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Dr. Karikó obtained her doctoral degree from the University of Szeged before moving to the United States and obtaining the position of an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania.1 Dr. Weissman obtained an M.D. and a Ph.D. degree at Boston University and subsequently obtained a faculty position at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The two researchers met during their shared time at the University of Pennsylvania and collaborated in exploring mechanisms in which mRNA can be used to stimulate immunity development in the body.2 By modifying nucleotides in mRNAs, the pair discovered that the subsequent introduction of mRNAs into cells led to reduced inflammatory responses and increased immune protein production. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, most vaccines stimulated immune responses via attenuated viruses, proteins, or viral genetic code-carrying vectors. These vaccines, while effective, required substantial resources to produce the number of cell cultures needed to synthesize adequate supplies of vaccine to combat pandemics, such as COVID-19.3 Contrastingly, mRNA vaccines can be prepared without cell cultures through in vitro transcription and nucleotides can be modified to adapt to mutating pathogens - flexibilities that allowed more than 12 billion COVID-19 vaccines to be produced and administered in less than three years of the start of the pandemic.4,5